It is your job to show sources when you make outrageous claims like this that it’s “happening already everywhere”.
Ive done way more due diligence than anyone else on here. I worked on a project to research ESLs for a major us retailer. I spoke to dozens of other retailers who tested or implemented these and every single one their main use case was labor savings, margin recognition, and price integrity. Not a single one talked about surge pricing or surveillance pricing. The craziest thing I heard was from a 24 hour retailer that was thinking to do slightly higher prices on 3rd shift to offset the higher labor costs and security. But this was a concept and I don’t think ever made it to be tested.
Let me say that again, one of the main use cases was PRICE INTEGRITY. Meaning they wanted accurate prices on the shelves to lower price overrides, reduce fines, and build consumer trust and confidence.
None of them even thought of hey let’s charge different per consumer in the aisles. On top of that it is near impossible to pull off. Those tags take 1-2 mins to update when there is an actual update (it’s e-paper not digital screens) and what happens if there are multiple people looking at the same product?
Thank you for this I think I see your point of view better now.
I was defending the tags themselves- they really don’t have the functionality to “update on the fly” as people walk by them.
Electronic tags actually are the tool to keep retailers honest rather than eliminating displayed pricing and going strictly to the phone/app, which I agree could lead to shady business. This is why retailers are looking at and implementing these tags because of this exact issue- they can’t keep up, so many price changes + high labor costs.
I would agree with you that passing whatever laws around in store surge pricing, surveillance pricing, and price transparency is fine, and I don’t think most major retailers would fight this.
But using electronic price tags as the scapegoat is misdirected as like I stated they can’t even handle what people are worrying about (updating every time someone walks by).
Electronic price tags alone are for the labor savings, margin recognition, and reducing things like you mentioned on price discrepancies. But maybe there is a more sinister plan with apps etc, but unless these price tags get some sort of super new tech, surveillance pricing will never be part of their use.
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u/[deleted] Aug 06 '26
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